


and the ocean calls

by shima_wishes



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, LadyNoir - Freeform, Mermaids, Multi, Pirate AU, Pirates, Rivals to Lovers, Slow Burn, adrienette - Freeform, enemies au, ladrien
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-08-31 21:49:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8595016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shima_wishes/pseuds/shima_wishes
Summary: “The lovely Captain Ladybug!” Says Chat, doing a fancy flick with his sword and sheathing it in one take. “You can put your weapon down. I’m not particularly looking for a fight.”“And yet you hijack my ship, brawl with my crew until you reach my cabin and then, just for the hell of it, kick the door in?” asks Ladybug, her voice practically a growl, dripping with sarcasm. Her weapon remains perfectly still in the air between herself and Chat. “And then you have the audacity you say you’re not looking for a fight. So what exactly is it that you’re looking for, Chat Noir?"





	1. Chapter 1

The ship surges and rolls on the crests of the vicious ocean waves as Marinette stumbles around the cabin. Low, reverberating booms of cannon fire jolt the ship with a determined ferocity, and the muffled but distinct ringing of screams can be heard from the deck above. She groans as she's flung across the room by a particularly fierce wave and her knee connects with the edge of her heavy wooden desk with a decisive crack.

"Ugh... third time this month. I'd be surprised if it wasn't fractured by this point," mutters Marinette, unsteadily clambering to her feet and gripping the object of offense so hard that her knuckles begin to turn white. She glances at the table and, after a moment of deliberation, grabs the grimy, worn map that sits on top, rolls it tightly into a cylinder and shoves it into an inside pocket of her coat. "Useless map, but I may as well keep it just in case."

There's a frantic knock at the door and Marinette glowers at it before shouting, "Come in!" over the din. She rubs at her forehead with her thumb and forefinger. This whole ordeal is beginning to give her a headache.

"Captain! We desperately need you on deck. We're trying to keep them out of the cabins but it seems like we're fighting a losing battle here!" Says the visitor, one of the crew members, panting and struggling to stay on their feet as the ship lurches once more.

"Alright, Max. I'm sure Alya has everything under control for a few more moments," says Marinette firmly, trying her best to look as if she wasn't just bumbling around the room like an idiot trying to gather all her things, just in case. "I'll be there. Hurry and go back! I'm sure they need your help up there."

"Okay, Captain, but Chat Noir and his crew-"

"Max! Just go. Everything will be fine. I won't be long," Marinette reassures him, and Max shuts his mouth, nods, and closes the door behind him as he scurries away.

"Phew. Okay... one final check," she tells herself, relieved at Max's departure. She glances around. Her cabin seems to be in order other than her ornaments that are smashed and strewn across the floor, and she seems to have collected everything of importance. All that's left is her sword, rested proudly upon a velvet red pillow in a box on the mantelpiece at the back of the room below the mirror which is, shockingly, still intact. As she goes to seize the sword and race to the deck to help her crew, the door behind her smashes open with a deafening crash.

"Alright, alright, calm do-" Marinette begins, turning around, but her mouth drops open in horror once she sees the newest intruder. She quickly snaps it shut again, standing straight and with her head held high, holding the sword out before her. "Chat Noir."

"The lovely Captain Ladybug!" Says Chat, doing a fancy flick with his sword and sheathing it in one take. "You can put your weapon down. I'm not particularly looking for a fight."

"And yet you hijack my ship, brawl with my crew until you reach my cabin and then, just for the hell of it, kick the door in?" asks Marinette, her voice practically a growl, dripping with sarcasm. Her weapon remains perfectly still in the air between herself and Chat. "And then you have the audacity you say you're not looking for a fight. So what exactly is it that you're looking for, Chat Noir?"

"Oh, not much. Just a scrap of paper, really. Nothing at all that important, so if you would just hand it over then I would vacate at the speed of a fleeing seagull and we could both be on our way," says Chat casually, kicking the door shut behind him and coolly edging his way around the room.

As he begins to move, Marinette flinches slightly and lunges her sword closer towards him. "Don't you dare make another move."

"My Lady! You would really seriously consider killing me?" asks Chat Noir, raising one hand and placing the other on his chest, feigning mock distress. "After all we've been through together?"

Marinette rolls her eyes and remains stock-still. "If you mean you firing on my ship and attempting to invade it multiple times, as well as stealing our food stock and some of our most precious treasure, then yes. Yes I would seriously consider killing you. And if you're talking about a map, I don't have one. So be on your way."

Chat Noir's emerald green eyes glint beneath his black mask. "I know you're lying. I'd truly like to humour you, but I want to be on my way as much as you do. Hand it over, Bug."

"Don't call me Bug!" Snarls Marinette, taking the chance to lunge forwards and thrust her sword directly towards Chat's chest. He leaps back with a speed and agility only akin to a cat, drawing his sword with a sonorous *sching* at the same moment. He parries her blow and suddenly they're face to face, glaring at each other over the blades of their swords.

"Don't make me hurt you, my Lady."

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call be that before it finally sinks into your thick skull?"

She whips around and out of the locked position, striking at Chat Noir again and again, with frustration rather than malice. She bites back a shriek as he parries her again and again with an infuriatingly laid-back ease, again and again and again. Not once does he aim a blow in her direction. She can still hear the rumble of the clamour above, but the cannon fire has ceased and so the sound of metal on metal resonates clearly and shrilly through the cabin. Eventually, Marinette draws her sword away and steps back, holding it out before her again with an ever so slightly shuddering arm, shoulders heaving with exertion. Chat Noir composedly steps back, resheathing his sword and crossing his arms.

"I can't let you leave this cabin until you give me that map. I know that you have it. We came after it right after you, and for a small amount of some very valuable treasure-" he smirks and taps his foot on the floorboards, "-certainly more valuable than anything you could have given him, a witness told us the name of the ship that sailed off with the custody of our map. I have to admit that I wasn't surprised to hear the name The Tikki. How come you're always involved in my affairs? It must be fate."

"Or maybe we're just better pirates than you," retorts Marinette sweetly, smiling with a tilt of the head. She takes a daring step towards him. "'Our' map. It was never 'your' map. Before we had it, it belonged to nobody. And now it belongs to us."

"Not for long, Bug," says Chat, but Marinette notices for a brief moment that his voice wavers as she takes another audacious step in his direction. He pauses and swallows before continuing, "Hand it over now or your crew is history. I don't want to hurt you, but sooner or later I'll have to take it anyway."

"If you want it so badly, why don't you come take it then? It's in my coat pocket," Marinette says, assuming a guise of defeat and relaxing her posture a little. "I value my crew more than anything. Call off your crew first and then you can come and take it."

She notices a dusting of redness on his cheeks and for a moment he's speechless. *Success*. Then, as if buffeted by a sudden wind, he leaps into action and strides over to the door, opening it a crack to give an order to what could only be a guard standing outside the door. The echoing sound of footsteps retreat down the corridor and Chat Noir slams the door shut again triumphantly, approaching Marinette with a victorious confidence about him that makes her want to stick her tongue out in exaggerated disgust. Or possibly give him the middle finger. For some reason, she isn't afraid. She faces him and looks boldly into his face as he gets closer and closer.

Just as he's a foot or two away from her, he falters, suddenly looking troubled. She expects him to have caught onto her plan, but he looks somewhat genuinely concerned, glancing up and down at her.

"Are you really sure you want me to come so close?" he says eventually, and his concern seems almost authentic.

But, thinks Marinette, that can't be possible. "Getting chivalrous now, are we, Chat Noir? Just come and take the map," she replies impatiently.

"Well... okay, if you're sure. I don't want to-" he shakes his head and suddenly seems to regain his usual brash personality. "Whatever. All I want is the map and then we can get this all over and done with."

And then he's standing so close to her that she can feel his breath on her forehead as he looks down so that he can find the map. For a moment, there is silence as the fighting above them comes to a halt and Chat Noir carefully - with more gentleness than she would have expected - reaches to open her coat.

The calm before the storm.

Just as his gloved hand dares to ease into the coat's folds, she yanks her leg up between his and he yelps in pain and lurches backwards. Her mission is aided by a ruthless wave that sends him reeling across the room, sprawled across the floor and curled over in near agony.

Marinette bolts from the scene like a rabbit as it races from a fox, but for some reason can't help but glance back at him one last time as she crosses the door-frame. She doesn't know why... but she actually feels... sorry for him. Guilty. She takes a deep breath through her nose and steels herself to reality as she leaps up the stairs at the end of the corridor.

Chat Noir is a pirate. A filthy, good for nothing pirate. Even more so than her. She's not about to begin feeling apologetic to someone like him, especially after everything they've been through over the years of their rivalry.

She bursts out onto the deck, and all hell breaks loose.

"It's Captain Ladybug!" Shrieks one of the crew members, and Marinette can't tell which side it comes from. She leaps out of the compartment and draws her sword, brandishing it dangerously.

The two sides surge upon another once more, thrown off guard by Chat Noir's absence. Marinette yelps as a particularly large member of his crew swings a heavy sword towards her head but ducks just in time, maneuvering her way out of an extremely close call. She dances around the brawling pirates with a practiced agility, weaving in and out of the chaos whilst still battling off approaching threats with her sword. Leaping up the steps, tripping one of Chat Noir's crew with an outstretched leg as she does so, she finally reaches the quarterdeck and the helm of the ship.

At the helm stands Alya, valiantly defending herself against another of Chat Noir's crew, a dark-skinned man wearing a bandana wrapped around his head, whilst also keeping one hand on the wheel to control The Tikki.

Marinette instantly recognises the man as Nino, Chat Noir's second in command and another of The Tikki's crew's sworn rivals. Alya has been holding him off well; Marinette is impressed, of course, but it's not like this is the first of their duels.

Right now, though, Alya seems to be doing fine and their battle is the least of her worries. Marinette hauls herself up on to the fence facing down to the deck using the rigging closest to her as an aid, and then, standing tall and confident, takes her rifle from her back pocket and raises it high into the air.

She fires three distinct, earsplitting, commanding shots, and the ship suddenly falls quiet as people turn to stare at the source of the explosions.

"Crew of The Plagg, I demand that you leave this ship immediately. If you refuse to retreat, we will remove you by force," calls Marinette, her voice ringing out across the ship. The salty sea breeze and the spray of the ocean stings her face and whips her hair into her eyes, but she doesn't even flinch. For good measure... "Your captain is currently in a lot of pain, but I'm sure he will be joining you shortly."

The grumblings of discontent begin to spread their way around the deck, but Marinette watches triumphantly as the members of Chat Noir's crew begin to glance uncertainly at the trap door she had emerged from, peering at each other in a state of perplexity. They seem to be ready for retreat when Chat bursts from the trap door, swinging his sword around recklessly.

"Crew, it's time to return back to our ship! The Tikki is not in possession of what we're searching for," he yells, and Marinette stares at him in bewilderment. Within the briefest of moments, she catches him glance in her direction and tilt his hat upwards slightly so that she can see his eyes beneath the mask... and he winks. "Oh, and take all that you can get as you leave. Swipe anything in your sight!"

Marinette bristles in contempt.

The crew begins to yell and starts running, the hammer of footsteps upon the deck causing a raucous clamour of something not of defeat but also not quite of triumph. Marinette launches herself from the quarterdeck fence to catch Chat Noir within the turmoil and ask him what the hell he thinks he's doing, but he's gone in a flash, as elusive and deceptive as his name implies. Marinette growls in the back of her throat, clenching her fist around the grip of her rifle and shoving and elbowing her way through people as they push past her. She's determined to reach the spot where she last saw him, just hoping to catch a glimpse.

But the lucky Captain Ladybug has hit an unlucky streak, because Chat is nowhere in sight. Or maybe it's luckier that way - she can't really tell. She shakes her head in exasperation and decides to take what she gets, accepting his retreat with as much grace as she can muster even if she's still strongly suspicious that Chat has developed some kind of devilish plan in his head and that this isn't the last she'll see of him on the matter of the map.

The map... she carefully, as inconspicuously as possible, inches open the coat with one finger to peer at the frilled edges of the browned sheet of paper rolled up inside her pocket. She didn't think it was all that important originally, but now she's forming the beginnings of an idea that she must have been wrong. If Chat was willing to risk his life and his crew to attack hers for it - the first time in months - and to trade away some of his most valuable treasure for information on it, it must be far more important than she had any idea of.

She pulls the coat tightly around her body and makes her way back to the quarterdeck. She'll have to arrange to talk to Alya about it later.

* * *

From within the shadows of a door leading to the lower storage space in the decks below the ship, a figure watches Captain Ladybug as she approaches Alya and leans closely towards her. The two keep their heads down. They seem to be deep into a discussion.

He grins and steps back from the wall, replacing his hat back onto his crow's nest of messy golden hair. Emerald green eyes glint behind a black mask as he descends the stairs and fades away into the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so!! i hope you enjoyed the beginning of my pirate au fic. i know there are some similar aus floating around at the moment, but i haven't actually read any of them so hopefully this will end up being nothing like any of those. i actually have six chapters of this written right now due to nanowrimo, and more planned to come, so stay tuned for regular updates for the time being!
> 
> tumblr: [marichengs](http://marichengs.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _When she stands at the bow of The Tikki with ocean spray stinging at her skin, electrifying her senses, with the azure blue expanse of the wild and free ocean waves stretched out before her… that’s when Marinette feels as if she can do anything._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm really happy that so far, although this hasn't been very widely noticed, there are quite a few people who are really excited about the rest of this fic! i'm excited too so i hope you enjoy this chapter, even though it's a little different from the last. <3

"So... do you have any idea where this is or where it leads?"

Alya squints at the map, scrutinising it closely before looking up at Marinette and shaking her head. "Ladybug, girl, I could take a guess at where this starts from the single set of coordinates it gives but honestly, from what I can tell it seems as if it leads to nowhere. I'd even go as far as to say it's unfinished."

Marinette rubs her forehead in despair and thrums the fingers of her other hand on the desktop. She's managed to clear up the room a little since the 'incident', but her smashed ornaments were unrecoverable and were thrown in a bag over the side of the ship. Surprisingly, Chat didn't steal any of her other valuable belongings whilst he was left alone in the room, though.

"I didn't recognise it either. I thought maybe I was missing something, but if neither of us can see it, then maybe it really is pointless," sighs Marinette. "After Chat's attack I was sure it was important, but now I'm beginning to rethink it all over again."

"Well..." Alya points with the end of a quill to a point on the map. "If the coordinates here are correct, we can definitely make a start. How about it, Captain?"

Marinette nods, reaching for her red cocked hat and positioning it onto her head with a quick flick of the wrist. "Alright, we'll give it a try. We have nothing better to do at the moment, anyway." she pauses, tapping on her chin as she thinks. "But first we should make a stop at someplace where we can top up our supplies. Chat Noir's crew looted a lot of what we had stored."

"I'm on it."

* * *

Two days later, The Tikki pulls into a sheltered bay closeby to a seaside sailing town, staying hidden to keep safe from sailors who would potentially recognise them and would  _ potentially _ not have the greatest relationship with crew and captain. Marinette’s pirate ship has pillaged many a sailing ship across their voyaging years, and she’s not about to risk running into any familiar faces.

In her cabin, Marinette prepares to leave. She changes into simpler clothes more suited to the average sailor, rather than a pirate; to make herself inconspicuous even further, she dresses in the clothes of a poorer sailor instead of a captain. A raggedy white shirt tucked loosely into a pair of brown slack trousers and a simple cap made using a burlap sack should do the job perfectly. She also removes her mask, placing all her pirate clothes into a drawer that stands to one side of her cabin and locking them in.

She stares at herself in the mirror. She looks so… average. Unimportant and unthreatening. So distinctly  _ not  _ pirate-like. 

She doesn’t like it.

Being a pirate runs in her blood, gives her adrenaline and keeps her alive. Or, maybe at times it doesn’t do the best job of keeping her alive, but she always manages to escape death even if only by the skin of her teeth. Even then it’s not only in literal terms that being a pirate keeps Marinette alive. Every breath she takes, every movement she makes, and every word she speaks is energised by the thrill and the rush of constantly living life so precariously on the edge of jeopardy and peril. When she stands at the bow of The Tikki with ocean spray stinging at her skin, electrifying her senses, with the azure blue expanse of the wild and free ocean waves stretched out before her… that’s when Marinette feels as if she can do anything.

Even like this, the ship rocks beneath her, lulled by the rising and falling tide, and she feels powerful and free. Just because she’s not dressed up in the full attire, it doesn’t mean that she’s not still a pirate.

She finds herself with a newfound confidence. Striding with the true dignity of a pirate captain, she makes her way to the deck of the ship, tips her hat towards Alya as a goodbye and descends over the edge towards the town.

* * *

Chat Noir doesn’t realise that the ship has stopped moving until he hears a scuffle from outside his hiding place. He’d found a loose board in the storage room wall, and has been hiding in the small unwanted space that the wall would usually hide to make the room look more or less rectangular, only venturing out every now and again to snag a few items of food from the ship’s rapidly depleting food supply. That alone had given him enough indication that they would be pulling into port some time in the near future. He needs a disguise so he can get out of this claustrophobic, stuffy, dark little room before he convinces himself that it would be better to just give himself away; offer himself to the dogs.

The relief the stranded captain feels when he hears some deckhands discussing the disembarkment of Captain Ladybug as they gather some supplies for breakfast is almost overwhelming. He sits curled up in the tiny room, arms wrapped around his legs with one hand bouncing up and down on top of his knee as a substitute for bouncing his leg. As soon as he’s positive the deckhands are gone, he springs into action. 

It takes him a while to get past the crew, but he’s a pirate with vast amounts of practice at being stealthy and sneaky. Soon enough he’s on his way to the town, whistling as he goes, enjoying the feeling of open air on his face and the gentle light of the rising morning sun.

He jingles the bag of coins in his pocket, grinning at the sound that is like music to his ears. Chat Noir isn’t really in the pirating business for the money, but it’s certainly an added bonus. He loves the thrilling, dramatic, ‘romantic’ life lived by a pirate. The fact that he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, for whatever reason he likes. The idea that he could be famous for his discoveries within the vast oceans of the world. What he seeks more than anything from the map that’s in the possession of Captain Ladybug is not the treasure but the glory, the adventure, and the unexpected. His current mission is like nothing he’s ever attempted or experienced before and he’s determined to make the best of it.

For that reason, once he’s into the heart of the town he invests in a scrappy pair of rough-fabric scratchy brown trousers that itch and irritate his legs, and a loose brown shirt of similar - but slightly less painful - material. He also blows some of his money on a small wooden comb, using a mirror in the stall to smooth his hair down and out of his eyes. He purchases a sack to put his old clothes in and resolves to hide them in the rocks outside The Tikki until he has the chance to bring them in; he loves his captain’s clothes and is not about to lose them just because he’s masquerading as a clueless crew member. He’s willing to take a risk.

As he’s leaving the stall, a scuffle at the end of the street draws his attention. He watches as a girl with raven-black hair, tied back into a short ponytail, has her handbag seized by a particularly large man bearing a devious smile revealing ugly, yellowed, chipped teeth. He smirks at her as she grips onto her bag with sheer strength and determination and glares stonily up at him, her icy blue eyes glinting dangerously.

“Do you want to let go of that?” she asks him, and Chat Noir inches closer. He gets the feeling that this is going to be interesting.

“Not particularly. Give me the bag, little girl,” sneers the man. He’s acting tough, but Chat can tell that his confidence is slipping by the second. “Give it to me or something much worse is going to happen to you than getting your scrappy little bag stolen.”

The girl jolts into action so quickly that Chat almost misses it as he blinks. She springs off her feet, arching her back as if to do a backflip, with such force that she rips the sack straight out of the thief’s hands. The contents go flying, and a small box bounces and clatters across the floor to settle by Chat’s feet. It’s popped open during its fall - it contains an expensive-looking pair of earrings. Chat glances at it but is too engrossed in watching the altercation to pick them up and run. Instead of actually backflipping, the girl launches herself back forwards from the flats of her hands to ram the man in the stomach with both of her feet. Then she does a full backflip and lands with one hand on the floor, one leg extended and one folder beneath her. Despite the fact that she’s dressed like a commoner, Chat thinks that she looks extremely cool.

The thief stumbles back with an “oof”, doubled over and clutching his winded stomach. It reminds Chat of himself on the ship with Captain Ladybug, and suddenly he snaps out of his trance.

He reaches down for the earrings that the girl dropped, hoping to make a quick getaway, but the girl is too quick and beats him to it - almost. Their hands close on top of the box at the same time and it takes them each a moment to register what just happened.

Marinette looks up furiously and swats Chat’s now ungloved hand away with hers and he accepts his defeat, withdrawing to stand and look at her. She’s… pretty. He should run, but for some reason he’s drawn to her like a fly to a lamp. 

Marinette, however, stands with her hands on her hips in front of him. “What was that for? Planning to steal it and make a profit, huh?”

Chat gapes at her, at a loss for words. She stares at him in contempt and raises one eyebrow, tapping her feet as she waits for an explanation. Eventually he gulps and chokes up an answer. “No, I swear!” A lie. “I was… I was just trying to be kind and pick the box up for you. Sorry for being misleading.”

“Oh… really?” suddenly, Marinette feels embarrassed for making a judgement on this stranger so quickly. She looks at him carefully; a boy with sea green eyes, neatly combed blonde hair that shines like golden silk from a spinning wheel, an innocent face with an adorable awkward grin. She can feel her face growing warm as she realises that she’s staring at him, but he seems to hold her gaze. “I see. You’re being sincere. I’m sorry for accusing you so quickly.”

She bought the bait, but Chat actually feels worse about lying to her than he knows he usually would.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says. He kind of wants to do something to make up for lying to her face. “What are you in town for? Just the earrings?”

“No… I’m with a ship. I got sent out on an errand to shop for some supplies. What’s your name?”

Chat considers his options. There’s a name he has that he hasn’t used for a very long time; not since he became a pirate when he was very young. But it’s probably best not to tell this girl his captain name. He doesn’t want to give himself away to her and scare her off, especially as he’s quite infamous among sailors and sailing towns enjoy ripping him and Captain Ladybug to shreds in the press. Which is fair enough, he supposes. He also doesn’t want a rumour to begin circulating that he’s in town, for… similar reasons. 

“My name’s Adrien,” he tells her, formulating the answer as quickly as possible.

“Marinette,” she replies with a smile. “Nice to meet you, Adrien. How about you then? What are you doing in town?”

He panics suddenly. Now this is something he  _ doesn’t  _ have an answer for. He could say just visiting, but what if he happens to see her again and he’s doing something slightly less than decent? His tongue sticks to the top of his mouth as he answers, “I discovered that there are pirates somewhere around here. I was hoping to join their crew.”

“Pirates?!” exclaims Marinette, shocked, but for the opposite reason that Adrien must be thinking. If there’s a rumour that pirates are around, it means that their ship has been spotted. Other crew members are out on errands, which means that if she needs to gather everyone in to leave immediately in the event of being stumbled upon by a clueless traveller, she’s in big trouble. “How did you discover that? Is it a rumour?”

Adrien’s eyes light up and he grins. “No, I saw their ship myself!” He says excitedly, doing his best to act as if he’s never even seen a pirate before in his life. “You might think that it’s weird, but I think being a pirate sounds thrilling. So long as I spend my life the way I want to, and I’m happy, I don’t mind how much danger I put myself in.”

She doesn’t want to argue with him. She knows how it is to be a pirate, and he has it almost spot-on. But this boy… this helpful, kind boy… wants to join  _ her  _ crew. Therefore, it would be Marinette who was putting his life at risk if he were to do so. She looks at him carefully and he smiles at her again. Her cheeks are dusted pink. Is she sure that she can accept herself if she does that?

On the other hand… it would mean that she could see him again.

“I suppose that’s a good view to have on life, but be careful,” says Marinette with, to an extent, an air of uncertainty. “Okay? I have to be on my way now, but I enjoyed talking to you. Thank you again.”

Adrien opens his mouth to reply but she walks away as quickly as possible, keeping her head down. She needs to get back to the ship and prepare to leave before Adrien can return there and sign up for a job. She can always reject him, but remembering the way his face glowed when he talked about pirates makes her wonder if she really has the heart. She has to remind herself that he’s just a random civilian that she met on the streets. With annoyance, she firmly tells herself to forget about him and move on.

Not long later, it’s all hands on deck on board The Tikki. Marinette is standing at the helm, yelling orders as people around her frantically run back and forth. She has one eye on the terrain around them. Luckily, Adrien hasn’t shown up yet, and she plans on departing before he gets the chance, so the crew is in a state of urgency.

They’re about to begin moving when she spots him. He’s running towards the ship, practically sprinting but not being very successful due to the large bag slung over his shoulder. Still, he’s approaching fast, and if they don’t hurry he’ll be able to get on to the ship without much trouble at all. Marinette gasps and releases the helm, running down the stairs as quickly as possible. 

“Alya! Take the helm! We’re leaving right now,” cries Marinette, and her first mate nods and ascends the stairs without question. “Hoist the anchor! We’re pulling up the gangplank!”

Somehow, if it were even possible, The Tikki descends into even more madness and panic than before. Crew members are yelling and everyone closest to Marinette halts their jobs to help her heave up the gangplank. Adrien is close enough now for her to hear him yelling, but not enough for her to be able to make out his exact words. His golden head bobs as he crosses the rocks and sprints across the sand, kicking it up behind him as he goes. But he’s too late, Marinette thinks with a sorrowful triumph. The gangplank is hoisted on to the deck and dropped with a booming clatter as the crew return to their more important jobs.

Adrien splashes out into the water and disappears from her sight beneath the edge of the ship just as it begins to move.

_ We’ll crush him! _ Shrieks Marinette’s head, and she gasps audibly and throws her head over the edge so quickly that she almost goes head over heels into the waves below. The water is deep straight off the edge of the sand, but Adrien has managed to grab ahold of the ladder that is attached to the side of the ship, used only for emergencies. He’s soaked to the bone, sopping wet and still holding the sack over one shoulder, hanging onto the ladder with just one hand and the support of his feet on the bottom rung.

“What do you want?!” Yells Marinette, above the roar of the waves as the ship picks up speed. “You’re not part of my crew. Go home!”

“Please, let me be a part of it! I have nothing else. I have no home. I’m begging you, let me join your crew!” Replies Adrien, sputtering through the saltwater. Begging - how unlike him.

“I don’t even know you!” Retorts Marinette. She can see him struggling. If he falls now, he’ll be sucked under the ship’s belly and probably won’t survive. A whisper of doubt flickers through her mind. She feels uneasy about making him leave.

“I came all this way, didn’t I?” Adrien says, clutching at straws. This voyage is his ticket to glory. To everything he could ever want. If he can’t convince her now, he’ll have to go out and find his own crew again, and by then Captain Ladybug and The Tikki will be lost.

To his surprise, she bites her lip and screws her eyes shut as if in desperate consideration. When she opens them again, she nods and returns to her normal stern temperament. “Fine! Come on then. But if you don’t prove your worth then we’re dropping you off at the next sea town possible.”

She turns around. One of the deckhands, Rose, passes in front of her, and she catches ahold of her arm. Rose turns and looks at her with wide blue eyes. Looking at petite angelic Rose, you wouldn’t think that she was cut out for the life of a pirate. Rose was the type of girl who proved you wrong.

“I need you to go get a towel, stat. And get Chef Wang to prepare something hot to drink. Go, go, go!” Demands Marinette, facing Rose in the direction that she needs to go and lightly pushing her in the back.

“Yes, Captain!” Rose squeaks, hurrying off. 

Alya watches curiously from the helm, and other crew members begin to slow to observe as Adrien climbs over the edge. The decking boards around him are immediately pooling with seawater as his sodden clothes ooze with liquid and his hair drips even more moisture down his body. He looks at Captain Ladybug gratefully but solemnly.

“Thank you.”

Rose emerges from below the deck with an armful of towels, giving Marinette a good excuse to turn away from Adrien and hide the blush on her face. She’s warmed by his sincerity. She’s about to tell Rose to hand Adrien the towels when she changes her mind and decides that she’d rather give them to him herself. Striding towards her comrade, she takes the towels with a quiet “thank you” and takes a deep breath, forcing her face into neutral mode as she turns back to Adrien. It’s as she does so that she notices something unusual.

“Where’s your sack?” she asks suspiciously, raising one eyebrow at him.

“My sack?”

“You were carrying it before. Don’t act like you never had it,” says Marinette, and if not for the towels she would have placed her hands on her hips. The boy who wants to be a pirate. Maybe he  _ is _ more of a questionable character than she’s come to think.

Adrien frowns and looks at his sodden shoes. “Sorry, you’re right. I had to drop it in the ocean to climb up. It was only clothes, anyway. Kind of embarrassing, right?” he says, laughing awkwardly.

“I see. Well, I’m sorry about that,” replies Marinette, slightly embarrassed herself. She coughs. “Dinner begins in ten minutes; we’ll have a hot drink ready for you. The dining area is through the doors behind the ladder as you go down. Dry yourself off and come below deck when you’re ready.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“Welcome to the most ridiculously self-indulgent meals we’ll be having on this ship for a while. After being short on food for almost a week, I think we’ve all earned it,” says Ladybug, her voice ringing out into the silence. “You’ve all worked really hard. I’d also like to propose a toast - to the defeat of Chat Noir and The Plagg!”_
> 
> _The crew cheers, and it’s deafening. Glasses around the table clash together and liquid sloshes over the sides as the crew gulps it down. Adrien tries to hide his grimace and, though he raises his glass, he grumbles to himself under the noise._
> 
> _“Defeat. More like avoidance by foul play,” he mutters._

Marinette would be far less than pleased to know that, in fact, Adrien already knows his way around The Tikki fairly well from occasions where he and his crew have pillaged the ship in the past. They’ve never actually succeeded in taking the ship, although both crews have rendered the ships and supplies almost useless multiple times. Adrien has a strict ‘only kill if you have to’ policy, for both himself and his crew. Knock them out at best. Throw them over the edge of the ship or badly wound them at worst. There’s only so much a pirate can promise, after all. Come to think of it, he doesn’t think he’s ever seen on of Captain Ladybug’s crew murder either, at least not purposefully. Secretly he admires her for deploying a similar policy to his.

He spends a short while standing at the edge of the ship, allowing the sea breeze to dry him off as much as he can and watching the land recede gradually behind them. The land is a silhouette against the beautiful backdrop of the golden-bronze sky. It’s streaked with soft reds and yellow, and a few strands of clouds scud lazily over the hilltops, illuminated and glowing. It will be dark soon, and Adrien finds the night sky almost as beautiful as seeing it set on fire by the late evening, sleepy rays of sun.

He finds himself smiling, but his good mood fades as quickly as it arose as he remembers the last time he was stood like this, under this name, without his usual disguise that hides away the ‘other’ side of him, like two faces of a coin. The uncertainty he felt at that point in his life begins to creep back into him and he shakes his head, frowning.

It must be about time for dinner to start anyway.

He finds his way to the dining room easily and is greeted by the road of laughter and chatter from the crew as they prepare for dinner. He’s never been able to come up with a realistic reason for how such a small crew can make such a huge amount of noise, and he’s still lost on the explanation. Captain Ladybug notices him immediately. She’s talking to her first mate, who Adrien recognises easily as Alya - they’re always together - and he prays that none of the crew happen to recognise him back. He glances into the large mirror hung across one side of the wall.

No… he seriously doubts he’ll be caught out. He looks so different. It reminds him too much of the old days and gives him an acidic feeling in the back of his throat. He feels so… vulnerable. Shaking away his anxieties as much as he can, he forces a smile on to his face and makes his way over to Captain Ladybug. There’s a spare seat by her side, opposite Alya.

“Can I sit here?” he shouts over the noise, motioning towards the chair.

“Go ahead,” replies Captain Ladybug with a nod, “I was saving it for you anyway. I figured I should probably be keeping an eye on you.” For multiple reasons, thinks Marinette, and then her heart begins to race as she realises what she just said in her head.  _ Christ, Marinette. You don’t even know him. Get it together. _

“Thanks.” Adrien sits down and gazes down the table at the rest of the crew. He misses his own crew, he realises, especially Nino, and can’t help but wonder how they’re getting on without him under Nino’s command. He’s the most reliable person Adrien has ever met, and they would just each other with their lives. Whilst he doesn’t doubt Nino’s loyalty or capability, niggling anxious thoughts still plague at his mind and put him on edge. He taps at the table with one hand, a nervous disposition the deploys whenever his mind happens to go into anxiety mode.

He always tries to keep it lowkey, but Ladybug must be particularly observant because she looks at him carefully and then smiles apologetically. “I’m sorry about your bag, but we’ll get you some new clothes,” she says, and Alya nods solemnly. “We also realised that we don’t even know your name yet.”

Marinette figures it’s best to ask before she accidentally calls him Adrien with a slip of the tongue and he gets suspicious.

“I’m Adrien. I know that you’re Captain Ladybug - you’re so famous around these parts. I admire you,” says Adrien. He feels strained to have to speak so kindly to his enemy, but for the first time he realises - with a slight sense of dread - that it might not be a lie. He also finds himself thinking about the sack. “And this is your first mate?”

“I’m Alya,” she tells him confidently, sticking out a hand for him to shake. “I’ll happily accept you into our crew if you behave, but if you step out of line against Ladybug or do anything suspicious, you’re dead, kiddo.”

Captain Ladybug laughs. She’s obviously used to this side of her first mate. Nino, on the other hand, is fairly mellow and non abrasive when up against other people. He can be harsh but generally solves disputes calmly and authoritatively. He often advises Adrien on various issues; and despite their contrasting personalities, Adrien expects that Alya and Ladybug harbour a very similar relationship. They seem just as close to each other as Adrien is to Nino.

“Don’t worry, Alya. I already made sure that Adrien knows that if he does anything against us he’ll be out of here as fast as a mermaid can flick their tail,” Ladybug assures her best friend.

“I’ll work hard,” says Adrien, glaring slightly at Ladybug. If only he knew who she really was. He decides there and then that he’s going to prove his worth indefinitely to her and her crew. 

Ladybug looks as if she’s about to say something significantly more serious, but she’s cut off by the entrance of the chef and more crew members carrying in platters of food. Adrien recognises the tantalizing aromas that he caught a whiff of every day when he was concealed away as Chat Noir. His mouth begins to water, and he realises that he hasn’t properly eaten in multiple days; not since he was last on board The Plagg. Clutching his hands onto his lap, he watches with giddy impatience as plates of food are set out across the table before him. The room has fallen almost silent as they wait to begin.

Captain Ladybug stands to talk before they begin their meal.

“Welcome to the most ridiculously self-indulgent meals we’ll be having on this ship for a while. After being short on food for almost a week, I think we’ve all earned it,” says Ladybug, her voice ringing out into the silence. “You’ve all worked really hard. I’d also like to propose a toast - to the defeat of Chat Noir and The Plagg!”

The crew cheers, and it’s deafening. Glasses around the table clash together and liquid sloshes over the sides as the crew gulps it down. Adrien tries to hide his grimace and, though he raises his glass, he grumbles to himself under the noise.

“Defeat. More like avoidance by foul play,” he mutters.

“I’d also like to welcome our new crew member, Adrien,” Ladybug adds, once the noise has died down a little. “I expect one of you to take him under your wing. I don’t really care who. Just take care of him and do a good job of it. Show him what it is to be a pirate!”

Adrien nods towards the rest of the table and, to his surprise, they welcome him warmly with another cheer. He shouldn’t be particularly surprised. Joyful pirates are fairly good natured human beings. They’re not always ruffians and scoundrels; Adrien knows that almost better than anyone.

He wolfs down his dinner in almost no time flat. Ladybug gives him a side-eyed glance but doesn’t act too surprised; she must be used to people joining her ship malnourished and ravenously hungry. Adrien knows that he’s certainly used to it. 

Dinner ends far too soon and Adrien is shown to the ship’s singular huge sleeping dorm - even though he’s already been there multiple times, but of course, he keeps quiet about that - and is then left to his own devices whilst Captain Ladybug works out which crew member he’ll be put with. She’s made it clear that she expects him to begin working as soon as the sun rises and activity begins tomorrow morning. He waits until the tide of people moving in and out the dorm room has mostly trickled to a halt, and until he can hear the gently murmur of sleeping figures, to make his move.

Adrien discovered at an incredibly early age that he was able to pad around without being noticed with very little trouble at all. It was part of his reason for choosing the name ‘Chat Noir’ for his pirate identity. He’s always been an incredibly stealthy and furtive person, quite similar to a cat, and Chat Noir just seemed to be catchy and fitting. As well as the fact that black cats are known to be unlucky. Another attribute that the two of them share - Adrien finds humour in the fact that he and Captain Ladybug are such polar opposites to each other.

Someone else used to refer to him as cat-like, too, and secretly that was another reason that Adrien had ended up choosing the name Chat Noir. When he was a small child his mother had always called him Kitten because he had soft, strokable hair and he used to make funny little noises when his mother had played with it. Adrien misses those days.

Therefore, he slinks out of the dorm room swiftly and effortlessly.  _ Smooth sailing, _ thinks Adrien as he clambers quickly up the ladder and then leaps up the next set of stairs two at a time until he breaks out onto the deck above, shifting the trap door as quietly as he possibly can. 

Emerging from the door into the moonlight, he winces as he realises that he’s instantly been caught out. Captain Ladybug stands on the quarterdeck that’s raised opposite him, gazing out into the night as the gentle breeze shifts her hair around her mask. The stars are her backdrop as their tender light illuminates her face, reflecting from her azure-blue eyes that glimmer in the otherwise darkness. She hasn’t noticed him yet, but if he tries to move she most certainly will. 

Still, Adrien isn’t the type to just give up.

He pushes himself out of the trap door anyway, climbing up onto the deck with ease, and Ladybug must catch sight of him from the corner of her eye because she looks down at him and, surprisingly, smiles.

“Adrien. Can’t sleep? The first night can be rough,” she says, and then she beckons him up to join her.

Adrien has spent almost his entire life living on a ship but isn’t about to argue with the captain, for her sake as much as his own. “Yeah. Just thought I needed some fresh air, you know?”

“Yeah, I get that.”

Adrien comes to stand by Ladybug’s side and leans on the barrier like she is. He instantly understands why this is the spot she chooses to stand at. From here, they can see the bow of the ship as it bobs gently in the water, which is as smooth as glass. The stars that are scattered above their heads are reflected into the ocean and are only slightly distorted by ripples, which just make them glitter and shimmer even more brilliantly. The moon is directly ahead of them, hanging low and enormous, nestled within the constellations. He blows out an impressed breath as he takes it all in.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” asks Ladybug. He looks at her but she’s still looking across at the sky and the ocean.

“Yeah,” replies Adrien simply. “It really is.”

They stand side by side in a comfortable silence for a few more moments before Ladybug’s brow creases and she turns to look at him.

“Oh yeah. I was going to say this earlier, but… you know being a pirate is actually really dangerous, don’t you?” she asks, and she looks genuinely worried. “Why do you even want to be one of us?”

He hesitates before answering, “It’s a long story.”

“We have all night. I can take a long story or two.”

“Alright then,” he says, and he takes a deep breath. Adrien has never told his story to anyone before, but Ladybug doesn’t really know who he is and he’s beginning to think that maybe he should get it off his chest. Anyway, despite being her rival he has some kind of trust for her, and he can’t quite work out why. “I guess my connection with the sea starts with my father. He’s a captain in the navy and I basically lived with him on a ship during my childhood.”

“I see. What about your mother?” asks Ladybug with curiosity.

“My mother…” Adrien gulps. It’s not often that he feels so exposed and natural. “She disappeared when I was fairly small. The navy made a big fuss about it. The next thing I knew, we were constantly out on ship and all these dead mermaids kept being captured in nets by my father’s ship. Sometimes they were alive, which was worse. I kept asking for reasons that my mother was gone, and eventually my father told me that she’d been killed by mermaids. My father turned into a mermaid hunter, Captain Ladybug. It was awful,” says Adrien, and his throat feels as if it’s filled with honey. He hasn’t felt this weak in a long, long time.

“I’m… sorry to hear that,” she gently rests a hand on Adrien’s arm. “So what did you do? Did you run away?”

He nods, and he can’t look her in the eye. “As soon as I had the chance, I ran away from him. For a long time I was conflicted between finding out more about my mother’s death and with wanting to get away from my father. I don’t think he ever expected to find any answers, though. All he wanted was revenge.”

Ladybug looks at him earnestly for a few moments before her face settles into a determined resolve. “I don’t like people who lash out against other innocent creatures, no matter how much they’ve been wounded by them in the past. The only thing that lets evil prevail is the inaction of good men.”

Adrien laughs but carefully moves his arm out from beneath Ladybug’s. “You really believe that we’re the good guys here?”

Looking back out across the ocean and leaning down so that her head rests on the fencing, she nods sincerely. “I mean, we’re not always the heroes. But we’re not horrible people. If you chose to become a pirate, you must have an idea of that. I can’t stand back and watch this man kill hundreds of innocent mermaids just to avenge his dead wife.”

“Are you... saying that you’re going to do something about it?” asks Adrien tentatively as it dawns on him that Ladybug really is serious.

“Not right away,” replies Ladybug. The stars remind him of her as he glances briefly over at her, and he wants to slap himself as his heart begins to race. His feelings for Captain Ladybug are suddenly so complicated and are making a complete mess of his head. He finally looks her in the eye as she smiles at him, her grin lighting up the night and the space between them. “But right after our current voyage, we’ll make a start. And we’ll look into finding out more about your mother, too.”

Their current voyage… Adrien suddenly recoils away as he remembers why he’s here. Ladybug is his rival - his enemy. He doesn’t have time for getting close to people now, especially not  _ her _ . He’s here for the treasure, for the perilous mission he has taken on board, and for the good of his crew. It strikes him that he’s never been brave enough before to go after his father alone before, but he’s sure that he can accomplish it and get over his fears without her help.

Ladybug looks at him, puzzled and possibly with a hint of hurt within her eyes, and Adrien turns his head away slightly.

“Well, we don’t have to if you don’t want to. But you should take your time to think about it as you get to know us,” she tells him, her voice soft. She thinks she understands, thinks Adrien, but she could never understand. She pauses as if hoping for a response before continuing, “I’m going to head to bed now. Make sure you get a good enough amount of sleep, since it’s straight to work tomorrow morning.”

Adrien nods but continues to stare out across the water, and he remains still until Ladybug’s footsteps have receded into silence. Then he makes his way over to the side of the ship that he climbed up earlier and begins to climb his way back down, towards the water.

Later that night he returns to the dorm, a sack of pirate clothes stored safely in the small dark space behind the storage area of The Tikki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully the next chapter will be up at the same time next week! but uh, although i have up to chapter 11 finished, chapter 4 is the one unfinished chapter sitting in the middle. smh. so if it isn't up then sorry, i'll try to finish it as quickly as i can! thanks for reading again! <3


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“You sure do know a lot,” mutters Alya, watching his fingers as they track across the map. “More than I expected, honestly. Guess it actually was useful bringing you in here?”_
> 
> _“Excuse me?” says Ladybug accusingly, shooting her a sharp look, but she just lets out a tiny snort of laughter._

Alya and Marinette spend the next few days poring over maps and plotting routes in Marinette’s cabin, so she hardly sees anything of Adrien. She tries her best not to show her disgruntlement about this fact, focusing as much as possible on the task at hand and giving as little emotion away as she can to her first mate. However, Alya is very perceptive, and always has been. She notices within less than two days how fidgety and restless Marinette seems to be, especially when she’s tapping her hands so quickly on the table that it begins to vibrate and almost knocks off a glass.

“Girl, you need a break. Why don’t you go out and see how that new crew member of ours is doing?” asks Alya, perching on the table in front of Marinette. “I’m sure it’d be a relief for both him and the whole crew to see their captain after nearly two days of us being shut in here.”

Marinette sighs and stands, briefly removing her hat to run a hand through her fringe. “You’re right. It’s getting kinda hot in here anyway… I think I need some of that fresh sea air to get me back into the spirit of things.”

“That’s what I like to hear! Now go, girl, go get ‘em,” exclaims Alya, getting way too into the moment and leaping up to hold open the door, an excited grin stretching across her face.

Glancing at her coldly, Marinette can’t seem to suppress the pink blush creep up into her cheeks. “What do you mean, go get ‘em? I have no intention of ‘getting’ anyone,” she mutters, striding towards Alya and standing just inside the door, which is still open.

“You keep telling yourself that, Captain,” says Alya sweetly. She shakes the door slightly. “Now go! Live out your dreams. And don’t forget to strike up a conversation with our new pretty boy. Even though that probably comes in with the dreams part.”

“Alya!” Almost shouting, Marinette turns and takes the opposite door handle to the one she’s holding. “Ugh. Whatever. Just- just keep searching and if you need a break, take one. Whatever you want.”

Alya smiles at her, charming but devious, and Marinette rolls her eyes and slams the door behind her as she turns to leave. She feels suddenly flustered and broiling with anger at the same time. Her face feels so hot she thinks that it could burst into flames at any given moment. If she didn’t before, she  _ definitely  _ needs some fresh air now.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, as she turns the corner she bumps into Adrien, who’s coming in the opposite direction and carrying a stack of towels. She yelps in surprise as they collide and Adrien drops the towels all over the floor, immediately stooping down to pick them back up but flinching when her hand touches his and they bang their heads together less than a second later. Marinette composes herself quickly, jumping backwards to stand with her chin up slightly and her hands on her hips, shoulders back. She has to keep her guise as a serious and admirable captain. Her reputation isn’t about to be stained because of one silly boy.

“Adrien! Sorry for bumping into you- I mean, uh, you should watch where you’re going,” says Marinette, pretending to glare at him, but not too harshly. She doesn’t want to scare him off.

Adrien resists the urge to glare back at her. She seems far different now to how she was acting a night or two ago. “Sorry, Captain Ladybug. I’ll be more careful next time.”

Marinette nods and bites her lip. She considers what to do next as they stand in an awkward silence and Adrien slowly picks up the remaining towels. She feels bad for not helping him, but she doesn’t want to knock heads with him again by accident.  “Well, I’m just going up on deck, so be on your wa-”

“Actually, Adrien! We were hoping that we could talk to you,” exclaims Alya, stomping around the corner and taking the towels from him. She grins, looking between them as Adrien looks dumbfounded and Marinette glares daggers in her direction. “I’ll run off and take these towels to where they need to go. You and Ladybug go into the cabin and get a little more acquainted with each oth- I mean, with the maps. This will give you some valuable experience if you’re really looking to be a pirate!”

Adrien already has quite enough valuable experience, but he’s not about to turn down an offer to get closer to the map and closer to the prize. In fact, he didn’t expect it to be quite so easy to get so close to Ladybug - and, by extension, his goal. He expected to have to sail along with the crew, living the life of a lowly deckhand until they neared their destination and he could carry out his plan. So he nods at Alya and thanks her, and then follows a fairly irritated Ladybug down the hallway and into her cabin.

“I don’t know why Alya called you here but I suppose you could be of some use,” sighs Ladybug, busying herself around the cabin, arranging the maps on the table so that they’re less of a mountainous jumble and more able to be seen as one, vast expanse of sea and land. “Since you’ve lived on a ship most of your life, you’ve probably seen a few maps and been to a couple of odd places in your time, especially being the son of a naval captain. How about it? Willing to help your new captain and crew out?”

“Yeah, sure,” replies Adrien, his eyes skimming over the maps on the table for the one he’s searching for. He can’t see it. Then his eyes wander to the rest of the room, roaming over empty shelves and closed cabinets. Remembering the last time he was in here getting his ass kicked - almost literally - by Ladybug gives him uncomfortable flashbacks and memories. “Don’t you have any paintings or ornaments?”

“I did,” says Ladybug, and she points to a pin on the map. “That’s us, by the way. But anyway, all of the paintings and ornaments fell down or smashed and I’ve given up on putting them back. We had a particularly ferocious sea not long ago, when Chat Noir’s crew last came after us, and I lost a lot of them then. Plus his crew decided to ransack my cabin for anything that was still in tact… essentially, they keep getting either stolen or destroyed and I haven’t had the chance to get new ones.”

Adrien pauses, wondering if he can test his boundaries without being too obvious. And then, after a moment of hesitation, “Chat Noir?”

“Mmhm. Chat Noir. Notorious pirate around these parts, just like we are. I’m sure you’ve heard of him?” Ladybug questions, sitting down at her desk. “He takes great pleasure in besieging our ship, usually just because he can. You know, fitting the stereotype that civilians and the navy like to give to us. Not to say that it isn’t true…” she remembers the times that she’s ambushed and seized various ships in order to take their treasure. “But at least I’ve had my reasons.”

Adrien has to resist smiling smugly to himself over Ladybug’s annoyance at their irregular, aimless, and often unplanned ambushes of The Tikki. The truth is that he finds it incredibly entertaining and liberating to go after Ladybug’s ship, steal everything they possibly can, and leave. Ladybug has only returned the favour once or twice from what he can remember, and looking at her now as she smiles up at him he finds himself actually feeling a little guilty. He wants to kick himself for letting those thoughts slip into his head. What kind of pirate is he if he lets something as shameful as guilt - and a pretty smile - hold him down?

Ladybug lets out another large breath of air, blowing up her fringe from her forehead. “Having said that… Chat Noir is quite a remarkable character in terms of doing the unpredictable. Last time we met, he…” she shakes her head in frustration. She might be overthinking things too much, but ever since his last escapade Chat Noir and his unusual but sincere tenderness has often sprung to the back of her mind. “Well, never mind. I don’t need to keep prattling on about him. How about we move on to the duty at hand?”

Adrien feels a pulse of warmth in his chest that grows rapidly, resonating throughout his body at hearing Ladybug talk about his alter-ego in such a warmhearted light. He expected that Ladybug loathed Chat Noir with a vengeance, but that seems not to be the case by the way she talks about him. Although she may not be particularly fond of him, she doesn’t downplay him in any way and even tentatively verges on almost complimenting him. He’s glad when Alya enters back into the room to provide him with a distraction, otherwise he doesn’t think he would have been able to tear his eyes away from Ladybug’s face as she works.

“Alya, there you are,” Ladybug says with a certain extent of relief herself, standing to close the door behind her as she comes to stand next to the desk. “I’ve told Adrien where we are on the map. Now we just need to show him where we think we’re going.”

“You only got that far?” asks Alya with mock suspicion, raising one eyebrow suggestively. She laughs when Ladybug scowls at her menacingly, the captain’s face turning a bright red - whether it’s with anger or embarrassment, Adrien can’t quite tell. “Sorry, Captain. Anyway, Adrien, this is where we’re heading. What do you think?”

Alya slaps her hand down onto the table, and when she lifts it again Adrien is able to get a good look at the area the palm of her hand had covered. He peers at it closely, examining the general area and then looking in more detail at a smaller area, his eyebrows creasing in perplexity.

“This… this could be mermaid territory,” says Adrien slowly, circling a section of the point on the map that Marinette and Alya have opened to him with his fingers. “I recognise the general structure and vagueness from when I used to sneak into my father’s cabin to peek at his maps.”

Ladybug raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t pin you to be a devious one, Adrien,” she says, looking away from him to study the map where he’s pointing to. “I suppose growing up on a strict naval ship you’d learn more tricks and devices than you’d expect. Maybe even more than a pirate, now that I think about it.”

Adrien grins. How experienced and skillful he must have become after living through both. “It’s not too far away from here. It might take a couple of days to get there but we should be fine with what we have in terms of supplies.”

“You sure do know a lot,” mutters Alya, watching his fingers as they track across the map. “More than I expected, honestly. Guess it actually was useful bringing you in here?”

“Excuse me?” says Ladybug accusingly, shooting her a sharp look, but she just lets out a tiny snort of laughter.

A small smile tweaks at Adrien’s lips. “Mermaid territory is shrouded in fog, which makes it almost impossible to accurately map out. That’s why this area is so sparse and kind of unclear.”

“I see,” murmurs Ladybug, squinting at the map. “Yeah, I get what you mean. You’re right. I don’t know an awful lot about mermaids, so I’d really appreciate if you’d help us out with this journey, Adrien.”

Both Ladybug and Alya are looking at him earnestly with expectant faces. He bites his lip. He’s wary about getting involved with mermaids and kind of feels as if he’d rather walk the plank than visit mermaid territory again, after all this time. But he knows that this is the only way he’ll be able to achieve the goal he’s climbing towards, hanging on by the tips of his fingers. The only way that he can elevate himself to that shelf. So he’s going to have to face his fears.

He takes a deep breath and settles into a stony determination.

“I’ll do it. I’ll help you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *coughs* mermaids ahoy  
> thanks for reading again!! <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Suddenly but briefly, just a barely a flash, the fog above them must part for half a second, because the water is fleetingly illuminated by the silver glow of the moon as it rides above the thick mist. Adrien’s sure that his heart stops beating for an entire second._
> 
>  
> 
> _“Ladybug,” he breathes, his voice barely audible. “Ladybug, stop rowing.”_
> 
>  
> 
> _She stops without missing a beat, and he thinks that he hears her breath hitch in her throat._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i forgot to update this sunday so it's late, i'm sorry, but i hope you enjoy reading!!

Adrien was right - it’s a few days before The Tikki and its crew reaches the outskirts of the area marked on the map, and it’s just as he predicted it to be. The ship settles for a while just before the blanket of the fog begins as Ladybug, Alya, and Adrien discuss a plan of action in Ladybug’s cabin. And then Ladybug emerges makes her way up to the helm, observed with silent fascination by the crew.

The Tikki sails slowly and warily into the fog until it’s completely enveloped by its gloomy smog. Adrien stands, leaning over the edge of the ship, as Ladybug steers carefully throughout jutting slabs of stone and rocks that loiter slyly just below the murky water’s surface. Alya is at the bow of the ship with a lamp that she holds out before her, although Adrien doubts that it’s doing much help. Even so, she directs Ladybug as well as she possibly can.

The rest of the crew is quiet, and the area around them is deathly silent other than the churn of the water as the ship slices through it. Alya’s voice echoes resoundingly into the night.

Leaning over as far as he possibly can without being in danger of falling in, Adrien peers into the water, squinting down to see if he can find any sign of life. They’re in mermaid territory now, and it’s something that he’s far more used to than he would like to wish. He’s used to the swirling, muddy darkness of the foggy nights spent trawling through areas like this that may contain mermaid colonies, just in case; he’s used to rigorously watching the water bubbling from the underbelly of the boat, and the shadowy water further out, for any signs of the swish or glint of a mermaid’s tail. He’s used to his heart thumping in his throat with the impending, sickening feeling of the dread of having to listen to people shout at each other in the silence, and the piercing shrieks of the mermaids, and the knowledge that soon his father’s crew would have murdered yet another beautiful, innocent creature. His heart continues to pulse erratically in his throat even now. Even with Ladybug at the helm and the crew of the Tikki at his side and the resolve for only information.

He jumps so violently when he sees it that he almost loses balances and launches himself into the darkness below. It’s only brief, but he knows what he saw. It’s distinct and not easily mistaken for anything else with as much experience as he has. He waits for a few moments, scanning the water further out from the ship in case he catches another glimpse of it.

He’s in luck. There it is again; the multi-coloured shimmer that glimmers through the obscurity of the water. A lump forms in his throat and he slowly, almost robotically, makes his way up towards Captain Ladybug.

Ladybug sees him coming and side-eyes him gravely, her mouth set firmly in a straight line. “Are you okay?” she says to him as he comes to stand by her side, still focusing mainly on Alya and the scene ahead of her, despite the fact that they can barely see past the bow of the ship from where they stand.

“I’m-” the words stick in his throat and he breathes in deeply. The air tastes musty on his tongue. “Yeah, I’m fine. But I think we should stop. I saw one of them, they’re definitely here.”

“Stop?” asks Ladybug, raising one eyebrow. But then something seems to click in her head and she nods. “Yeah. We should stop. Get one of the smaller boats lowered down and try to get closer if we want to talk to them. I guess a large ship can be pretty intimidating. Adrien, go get some help and weigh the anchor.”

Adrien nods as Ladybug stops steering and they descend the stairs, splitting off in different directions as Ladybug goes to talk with Alya. By the time Adrien and Nathanael have weighed the anchor, Ladybug and Alya have gathered enough people to have gingerly lowered a much smaller rowing boat into the water. It rocks gently with the sway of the tide below them.

“Alya is going to stay here to look after the ship whilst I’m gone,” Ladybug says as she turns to her crew who wait attentively, gathered closely around her, to hear her orders. “Adrien and I will be the only ones who go out in the rowing boat today. Everyone is to remain as quiet as possible until we get back and we can leave.”

“Um, Captain,” pipes up Nathanael, reaching up to lift his bandana from his eyes as it slips down along with his fringe. “May I ask why you and Adrien are the only ones going? Adrien is the newest member of the crew, as well.”

“Good question, Nathanael. My only answer is that it’s important and private.” 

Whispers begin to travel around the small group of people, snaking from ear to ear. Ladybug listens for a few seconds before her face screws up into a scowl, turning slightly red. 

“Not like that, you dirty bunch of- ugh, whatever. I’ll deal with this later. Adrien, let’s go,” grumbles Ladybug, turning away as quickly as she can and stomping off to the side of the ship, dropping over without so much as a goodbye. Adrien trails behind her, and he can’t help but keep a tiny smug smile from his face. He gives a quick wave to the crew before he swings over the side himself and climbs down into the little boat.

It rocks dangerously as he lowers himself in, and Ladybug watches him with eyes that sparkle like sapphires in the flickering light of their lamp. She’s holding the oars to the boat, and although Adrien wants to offer to row he doesn’t think that Ladybug would be willing to oblige. If he’s learned anything about Ladybug, particularly over the last few weeks, it’s that she’s extremely stubborn and strong-willed and will go to almost any length to get what she wants.

“We should put the lamp out,” says Adrien, eyeing the flame as it licks at the glass and bursts into spitting golden light every now and then, illuminating their faces. “I think they’re pretty wary of the light.”

“Okay,” Ladybug replies. Adrien expected her to argue, but she immediately opens the tiny glass door and blows out the lamp, placing the casing on the floor of the boat. “You’re absolutely sure that they won’t take advantage of this and drown us?”

Adrien nods, and the only reason that Ladybug can still even slightly see him is because of the light that still glows down from the deck of the ship. “I’ve looked into a lot about mermaids over the years. After my mother first disappeared, I read a lot of books about them. They aren’t inherently violent or vicious creatures. Mostly because of being hunted, though, they’ve gotten pretty suspicious and distrustful of humans. I don’t blame them, if I’m entirely honest.”

“You’re a smart one, aren’t you?” Ladybug’s smile can just about be seen through the darkness. “It’s lucky I have you here. Let’s hope that we can find something out about your mother whilst we’re here, too. Okay, let’s go. Keep an eye out for rocks. I’m counting on you.”

Adrien is used to people counting on him. When he’s Chat Noir, his entire crew is always counting on him. But somehow with Ladybug the responsibility seems different. Maybe it’s because as Chat Noir, his crew already admire him and respect him; look at him with awe; maybe even fear him, although he likes to think that he’s friendly with everyone on his crew rather than constantly being seen as being that far above them. Maybe it’s because he wants Ladybug to see him as Adrien in the same way, although he can’t quite place why.

“Whereabouts did you see them?” inquires Ladybug, as she uses one oar to push them away from the ship, and they drift out into slightly more open water.

Adrien points in the general direction in which he had spotted the mermaid’s tail. “That way,” he whispers.

“Okay.”

They row in silence for a while, and the glow of she ship fades as the lamps are put out one by one. Eventually only one small pinprick of a glow can be seen in the distance - one remaining lamp so that the pair can find their way back home. Ladybug dips her oars into the water and trails them through as gently as she possibly can, and Adrien stares intently into the darkness. He can’t see a thing without any light, but it’s the only way they can make the mermaids feel safe enough to come up to them. He squints as he scrutinises, cursing the fact that the habitat of the mermaids is so dark, but at the same time being fully aware that this is where they’re forced to live to survive. His heart feels heavy in his chest.

Suddenly but briefly, just a barely a flash, the fog above them must part for half a second, because the water is fleetingly illuminated by the silver glow of the moon as it rides above the thick mist. Adrien’s sure that his heart stops beating for an entire second.

“Ladybug,” he breathes, his voice barely audible. “Ladybug, stop rowing.”

She stops without missing a beat, and he thinks that he hears her breath hitch in her throat.

“What is it?” she whispers back. Her voice is almost as quiet as his.

“They’re all around us. I saw them just then when the moonlight came through the fog.”

The pair sit in silence for a few moments, and neither of them so much as twitches. The water around them is perfectly still too, almost like glass. If it weren’t so dark Adrien thinks that he could have seen his reflection in the surface. It makes it far less plausible that what he saw just a few seconds ago was real, but he’s absolutely sure that he wasn’t mistaken - the mosaic of thousands of luminescent scales oscillating with all of the colours of the rainbow had been glittering beneath them, surrounding the boat on all sides. There's no way that Adrien could imagine something as frighteningly beautiful as that.

"Are you su-" begins Ladybug, but as soon as she begins to whisper, something flicks up out of the water beside them, delicately but clearly, spraying water droplets into the boat and onto their clothing. Adrien senses Ladybug stiffen as she tries not to flinch away or jump to the other side of the boat.

"He's sure," chimes a voice into the darkness. It speaks with a tone in a strange cross between sweet and venomous. "What luck you two seem to have had. Why are you trespassing in our waters?"

"All we want to do is talk," says Ladybug, not knowing where to face since they're still in pitch blackness. "We have a map. It sent us here, to these coordinates, but we're not sure why. And it has a codeword on it too - or at least that's what we think it is.  _ Miraculous _ ."

The boat bobs slightly back and forth in the water, and Adrien can feel a new weight pulling down on it. One of the mermaids must have leaned on the side of the boat. His heart races so quickly that he's sure Ladybug would be able to hear it, but he lets himself think that maybe, just maybe, her heart is racing equally as fast.

"Do you have the map?" hisses a different voice through the darkness.

"Yes, but-" Ladybug pauses to swallow, and Adrien senses her movement as she begins to feel around her pockets and the area around her. His skin feels electrified as her hand brushes his arm. It must be from the exhilaration of the mission they're attempting to carry out. "I can't see a thing. I need some light so that I can find it and show it to you."

There's a pause, and Adrien imagines the mermaids looking at each other in deliberation. He hears a small splashing sound as the mermaids submerge themselves beneath the water - to discuss what to do about the two trespassers, most likely. He wonders how they manage to communicate between each other whilst underneath the surface.

The boat sways and dips in the water and Adrien’s heart misses a beat and his breath catches in his throat. But then his breath seems to return to him in a rush as he feels a tap on his shoulder and a nudge, and he slides to one side. Ladybug squeezes in next to him. Their sides are squashed together and for some reason Adrien’s pulse refuses to slow down again, even though he feels far more safe this way. They sit in silence; waiting, anticipating.

After enough time for Ladybug and Adrien to begin to question whether they’ve just decided to leave them or not, one of them finally resurfaces. “Alright,” they say, their voice somber. “We’ll take you to a place where there’s light. We’d rather not have to trust you, but if you really do have the map you speak of… well, let’s just say we made a promise that we can’t break. We will guide your boat. Don’t make a single move or we won’t act as kindly towards you.”

Adrien gulps and nods mutely. Beside him he hears Ladybug whisper, “Okay.”

And then the boat begins to move.

The journey is slow and very deliberate, weaving in and out of objects or spaces that Adrien and Ladybug can’t see, and at times it feels as if they’re just going in circles.  _ Maybe it’s so that we can’t decide we want to follow them after we leave, _ Adrien deliberates as they make yet another long, drawn-out turn. At one point, he even begins to ponder whether they’re actually taking them to a specific place, or if they’re taking them away into the night and planning to get them so undisputedly lost so that they never bother them again. However, contrary to his doubts they begin to notice a spot of light in the distance that gradually glows brighter and more radiantly the closer they get.

The moonlight that shines through a break in the deep fog is still very soft, but it seems almost as brilliant as daylight to Ladybug and Adrien after being in complete darkness for so long. It illuminates a section of a large slab of rock and the water’s edge that laps gently at its side. The sides of the rock are caked with a filthy green slime, but the area on top looks clean and is still slate-grey. The boat knocks on the side as the mermaids push them right up to it, and they take this as a cue to scramble out of the boat so that they’re sitting on the top of the rock, looking down at the water below.

Lighted by the moonglow from above, it looks like a nebula of coral and seaweed and tiny silvery fish that flash as they pass by beneath. But most importantly of all, they can now see the mermaids who stare back at them, squinting in the suddenly vivid light.

Adrien stares at them in wonder, wide-eyed. Living mermaids up close look so different to how they used to look, dead or captured and struggling for their lives. The one he catches eye of first has chestnut-brown silky hair that glistens as water droplets roll of it and it catches the light of the moon. Her eyes are chartreuse green and her skin has a slightly green tint too - only ever so slightly - and it almost looks translucent. Underneath the water her tail shimmers brilliantly, the scales with colours that change and cycle between all of the colours of the rainbow as she swishes it about beneath her. There are three other mermaids, too; they surround the rock in the area in front of them and survey them with a discreet wariness.

“You have the map, then?” asks the chestnut-haired mermaid. She’s talking to Ladybug, but she looks at Adrien.

Ladybug glances between the mermaid and Adrien with a slightly irritated expression on her face. “Yes, I’m the one who has the map,” she says sourly. “Would you like to see it? You’ll have to tear your gaze away from him if you want to look at it, unfortunately.”

Adrien looks over at Ladybug in surprise, but she’s no longer looking at him, facing the mermaid with a stony looking expression. The mermaid herself raises one eyebrow and swims towards the rock, positioning herself in front of Ladybug with her arms crossed and leaning on the edge. 

“Alright, testy, calm down,” says the mermaid, and Ladybug looks away, serious but embarrassed. “Let’s have it then.”

“You can have a look at it,” replies Ladybug frigidly, tentatively flattening the map out onto the rock and keeping one hand on it to prevent the mermaid from snatching it away.

The mermaid just laughs, shrilly and high-pitched. “Calm down, I’m not going to steal your silly little map. It’s no use to me, anyway;  _ I’m  _ not going to follow it. I’m only even here because I have no choice,” she says, shaking her head. “At this point I’d steal it just to spite your attitude if it weren’t for your handsome friend over there.”

Ladybug grits her teeth to stop herself from lashing out at her, and Adrien feels his face turn slightly pink. He’s shocked and slightly bewildered to see that Ladybug’s face has turned red too, but he thinks that might just be due to anger. The mermaid laughs again as she glances between them.

“Lila, stop being so harsh on them. We were trusted to carry out this job properly,” pipes up one of the other mermaids, who has blonde hair tied into two long bunches using strips of seaweed with shells threaded carefully onto them and striking blue eyes.

The mermaid - Lila, apparently - narrows her eyes in resentment and glances back at her. “I don’t need you to tell me what to do, Aurore. But I suppose you’re right.” she looks back at the map and leans in more closely. “I’ll just check this map and tell you where to go so that you can get lost already.”

She squints at it, and the blonde-haired mermaid, Aurore, swims up to her side to take a look too.

“This looks bona fide,” says Aurore after a few moments of scrutinisation.

Lila sighs. “You’re right. Well, at least now we know that we won’t have to worry over this job anymore,” she looks back up at Ladybug and pushes the map away. “So, all we have to give you is about two weird clues so I guess you’ll just have to figure it out for yourselves.”

One of the clues is a set of coordinates.

The other is ‘turtles’.

“Turtles? That’s it?” asks Adrien, and Lila looks over at him surprise.

“Yes, pretty boy, turtles. I was beginning to think that you’d lost your voice.”

“No. I have something else to ask as well, actually,” continues Adrien uncertainly, glancing at Ladybug briefly. He catches her nodding in encouragement. “Something that you might have some kind of idea about.”

“Oh?” she swims closer to Adrien this time, leaning her head on her hands and pushing herself slightly out of the water to get as close to him as she can. He has to stop himself from shuffling back slightly in discomfort, trying his hardest to remain polite. “I have ideas about a lot of things, handsome.”

Adrien thinks he hears Ladybug… what was that? A  _ growl _ ?

He clears his throat. “Well, I was hoping for some information on… my mother.”

“Your mother?” asks one of the other mermaids quizzically, a girl with short dark hair fashioned into a bob. “What are we supposed to know about her?”

Adrien falters, and Ladybug speaks up. “Hear him out,” she says motioning towards him with one hand. “This is important to him.”

They look at each other for a brief moment before he continues, and Adrien manages to find some new strength. “My mother disappeared when I was just a child. My father always told me that she’d been drowned… by… by mermaids. I don’t know which mermaids, and I know it probably wasn’t you. But I was wondering if, even so, you knew anything about her. I know mermaids don’t kill very often.”

“No. We… try our best to avoid killing. It’s against our morals,” says the fourth mermaid, the only male in the group. His hair is tied up in a small bun. “I don’t recall any murders committed by mermaids in recent years. What was her name?”

“Her name…” Adrien bites his lip. He’s realised what the consequences might be of sharing his family name, but he has no choice in this situation if he wants to find out more. “Her name is- was. Her name was Evelyn Agreste.”

“Evelyn…” Lila stares down at the rock in front of her, looking slightly dumbfounded and lost for words. “Agreste?”

“That’s right,” says Adrien. His voice is barely audible.

“Evelyn Agreste?!” Shrieks Lila suddenly, her voice shrill and piercing in the silence of the night. She lurches out of the water suddenly, and Adrien reels back as she lashes out, scrabbling and clawing towards his face. Ladybug leaps in front of him almost immediately. The other mermaids cry out and bolt to grab onto her, holding her back. She fights against them, floundering like a fish out of water. “You’re telling me that you’re the son of Gabriel Agreste- that awful, awful man?! You’re his son and you  _ dare  _ to set foot in the waters of our home again! You’ll pay for what your family has done to us!”

“Lila, calm down!” Exclaims the male mermaid, pulling her back with his arms under her shoulders. “Mireille, Aurore, grab her arms! She’s going to tear my face off if she keeps thrashing like this. You two should leave right now.”

“Alright. We have all the information we need. But we don’t know the way back,” says Ladybug. She looks at Adrien, who is staring with wide eyes at the four mermaids as they grapple with each other, and then her face changes to an expression of grim determination. Grabbing him by the arm, she practically has to wrestle the stunned boy back into the rowing boat. “Adrien, are you okay?”

“I… I’m okay,” replies Adrien, shaking his head and screwing his eyes shut. He has to come back to his senses, and he knows it.

“...Right,” says Ladybug, unconvinced.

“I’ll take you back,” says Aurore, tentatively letting go of the still - but slightly less violently - flailing Lila. “Theo, Mireille, take Lila back home and make sure she’s safe. Make sure she doesn’t follow us. And, Lila… calm down. It’s not his fault.”

Theo nods and the three mermaids disappear beneath the surface of the water with a great deal of splashing. Once they’re gone, there’s silence, and Aurore looks up at Adrien and Ladybug. She eyes Adrien with a degree of uncertainty but swims towards them anyway.

“I’m sorry that we couldn’t tell you anything about your mother,” she says. Her blue eyes glitter in the moonlight. “We know of Gabriel Agreste. Lila came from a colony that was attacked by his ship, so she’s more sensitive about it than the rest of us. But mermaids have always denied the fact that we killed your mother, and we will continue to do so. I’m afraid we don’t know anything about her death.”

Adrien nods but keeps his mouth shut. He feels a whole host of emotions at the same time. Guilty; disgusted at his father; dreadful about Lila’s colony; horrible for bringing it up in front of her. It’s making him feel dizzyingly sick. Despite the fact that he’s staring straight ahead, he can sense Ladybug looking at him sorrowfully from his other side. They’re sat next to each other again. Shoulder-to-shoulder, pressed together. Somehow it’s the one thing comforting him right now.

“She’s right, you know,” Ladybug affirms softly. “It isn’t your fault. Nothing that your father has done is your fault.”

Adrien just looks off to one side, avoiding her gaze.

The journey back is just as long as the journey there, and equally as dark. After a certain amount of time, Adrien feels Ladybug shift next to him to lean her head on his shoulder. The weight is comfortable and he feels a warmth spread throughout his body. It just feels… right, somehow. Having Ladybug by his side like this feels right. It feels happy, content, comfortable.

But it isn’t.

It isn’t right.

Adrien has been living in the past few weeks with the knowledge that this isn’t forever. That he and Ladybug are rivals; enemies, even. That his crew is relying on him to stay on task and that he’s here to chase what he wants. And that’s all.

But does he really still want the same thing that he set out with the desire to have?

He shakes his head angrily, his eyebrows creasing in frustration. He can’t make anything of it. He can’t change his mind now. He can’t fall in love with Ladybug despite her bravery and her kindness and her capacity to care for anyone and everyone that she meets - even him. Even Chat Noir.

And... he’s doing it again. This has to stop. 

Gently, he pushes back against her with his shoulder until she slowly and heavily lifts her head to sit up straight again. Then he shrinks away from her. Although he knows they can’t see each other, Adrien stares at his lap where his hands rest, balled into anxiously twitching fists. He gets the distinct feeling that Ladybug looks at him for a moment or two. In his mind, her face is pictured in confusion and hurt.

They sit facing away from each other in the darkness, and the tiny boat floats on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i won't be able to update on christmas because i'm away without my laptop, but i'll update as soon as i'm home that friday and then the sunday after that as well! also i'm sorry if my lila was really ooc because honestly we've seen so little of her that it's pretty hard to write her. i don't want to completely villainise her though. for this story, as you read, she has her reasons.  
> thanks for reading~


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